Menu

About

The phrase “The Personal is Political” was the title of a paper in Notes from the Second Year: Women’s Liberation. It was written by Carol Hanisch, and was published in 1970. What is probably more significant is that this phrase was earlier used as a rallying slogan of the student movement and Second Wave Feminism of the 1960s, popularized by a group called the Redstockings and in the book Sisterhood is Powerful by Robin Morgan.

The original use of this phrase applies to women and their agency; to inspire them to be politically active about the issues that affect their personal lives, and to acknowledge that personal problems are political problems. “Political [..] in the broad sense of the word as having to do with power relationships, not the narrow sense of electoral politics” – Carol Hanisch.

—-

The phrase sneaks into our personal discussions fairly regularly, as we attempt to put words to our thoughts on several social, political and economic issues. That affect not just large groups of people, but also individual members of society in their routine personal lives. And of course, these are not limited to feminism.

We feel that this is an apt title for our personal blog, where we intend to put down as much of our thoughts and discussions as we can. We are trying to: explore our privileges – how being born with a certain name silently provides us with unfair opportunities; document the dissenting choices we make and the challenges the social order throws at us because of our decisions; how to be better allies to those around us who are marginalized by socioeconomic systems, or simply by ignorance and apathy; unlearn many of the biases, prejudices and contradictions that we have been knowingly or unknowingly indoctrinated into; constantly scrutinise the authority of institutions and establishments around us. Finally, with this endeavour we are trying to be true to ourselves.